Software KVM

Every now and then you come across an idea in computing that raises the bar in terms of what you think is possible.

A few years ago I found myself with two laptops in my home office, along with a single keyboard, HD monitor and mouse. So I went out to see if I could buy a suitable KVM switch in my local computer shops but I had no luck. In any event, my old laptop was VGA and my new one was HDMI so both could connect to the monitor at the same time already.

And then I discovered the software KVM. What a fantastic idea!

Basically you can simply move your mouse pointer from one monitor to the other (as you do with dual monitors on a single computer) and the keyboard and mouse activity are redirected to the other computer. Genius!

I never got to try it though because I ended up giving my old laptop to my eldest daughter at about that time.

Some of the free products that offer this capability are:

• Input Director
• Synergy
• Mouse without Borders

An impressive aspect of Synergy is that it is cross platform, so you could have a mix of computers running Windows, OS X and Linux.

Some of them have options to ensure that you do not transition to another system by accident. For example, you might specify that you must press a specific key to perform the transition.

And as if all of that wasn't clever enough, all of them support copy and paste between machines!

I guess the day will come when you will be able to move your mouse onto your iPad, your Smartphone, and your Smart TV is the same fashion!

The Death of the Split Pin

I had a problem with the cistern in one of our toilets last week. The float came off the arm and consequently the water kept flowing into the toilet (in fact the cistern started to overflow at one point but luckily I was in the house and was able to stop this before any harm was done).

As part of replacing the float, I needed to replace a split pin (the old one was so corroded that it fell apart when I tried to take it off).

I went to my two local hardware shops (Woodies and B&Q) and neither of them stocks split pins any more! I couldn't believe it!

In fact, I had to explain what a "split pin" was to the people who worked there!

So obviously times have moved on and split pins are a thing of the past.

So I'm including a photo of a split pin below so that they will not be forgotten forever!

BTW: I also used the term "ballcock" (to refer to the float) when I was talking to the people working in the shops and they didn't know that term either!

Dolls for Boys

We went into Spain (specifically San Sebastian) for a day trip when we were in the south of France on holidays this year to meet our friends Alex and Loreto.

The kids wanted to go into a sweet shop. The shop had a "movies" theme and I was blown away by the dolls which they had for sale.

Now I have never been one for dolls, but there were quite a few on sale here that I really liked!

There were quite a few of the Avengers, for example.

But the two I was most impressed with were Brandon Lee from The Crow (one of my all time favourite movies) and his father, Bruce Lee!

Here are picture of these two dolls. They are quite amazing! I didn't buy either of course. Well the price tags of €255 and €190 respectively were probably a factor in that decision!

oCam Screen Recorder

Some time ago I had a requirement to create some training videos for work. I wanted to record what I was doing on screen in tandem with a voice recording.

I guess the best known offerings in this space are Camtasia and Screencast.com.

Well I was looked for something simple and free (with no ads, watermarks, time limits, etc.) and I ended up selecting oCam from Ohsoft.

I think this is an excellent product and it worked really well for me.

It fully supports multiple monitors so I was able to record my primary screen while having the recording controls on my secondary screen.

I would highly recommend it.

BookCrossing.com

I heard about bookcrossing.com years ago from my friend Alex.

The idea, as I understand it, is that you register a book, get a unique ID from the site, write that ID on the book, release the book "into the wild", and then (if you're lucky) you get to track that book as it moves from person to person.

A a lover of books this seems like a great idea to me!

I guess this would work best with a book you bring on holiday and leave in a hotel/resort: that would give the best change of the book ending up somewhere interesting/exotic.

Anyway today I registered 11 books which I will be releasing (to my local St Vincent de Paul shop) at the weekend.

I'll post if I ever hear about them again!

ALS/MND Ice Bucket Challenge

The "Ice Bucket Challenge" has become a phenomenon here in Ireland, as in many other parts of the world. If people aren't doing it then they're talking about it or watching videos of other people doing it!

I was nominated by 2 of my kids but I declined to do it because (a) it was only my kids and (b) my wife had already declined and for me to do it now would seem unchivalrous! So I had to make a donation (most people seem to do both of course)

I have watched quite a few videos myself.

I liked Bill Gates's approach.

I thought Matt Damon was very impressive and thought provoking (as usual).

I thought Kermit the Frog's one was weird!

My least favourite was Charlie Sheen.

My favourite so far was Benedict Cumberbatch:

Trevanian Tour

I will soon be going on my summer holidays to the south of France. For me this is an opportunity to do a Trevanian tour (pilgrimage!)

Included below is a picture from Google Maps which shows the towns and villages which featured in his two Basque books ("Shibumi" and "The Summer of Katya") and which I intend to visit.

I would like to say thanks to Bjorn who explained some of these locations on this web page.

There is a page on the Trevanian website entitled "View from the château of Etchebar looking southeast". I'd like to take a look at that page now but unfortunately the site seems to be down at the moment. Hopefully it will be up again before I travel.

Trevanian's bio on IMDB indicates that he lived in Garindein so I'll need to add that to the route.

I will definitely being those two books with me on the holiday. I wonder if I'll bring my Kindle too (more Asimov books to read, don't you know).

I'll really looking forward to my tour. And I can't be accused of being a stalker if the man in question passed away back in 2005.

I'll post some pictures here when I get back.

Street Performers 2014

Every year we go to see the Street Performers in Merrion Square and every year I blog about it afterwards.

This year it was not called the "World Championships", probably because there was no competition and no voting!

As always it was a great day out. And once again the weather was kind (we went on Sunday).

The acts we saw were (in this order):

• Dan Raspyni (excellent)
• Yukinko Akira (awful)
• Dream State Circus (very good)
• Rob Roy Collins (ok)

Here's a picture of Dream State Circus, with both of them juggling flaming torches while she stands on his head (what some people will do to make a living!)

Mike Hall's Asteroids

Every few years I get some excuse to re-examine the Java source code for Asteroids by Mike Hall. This time it was preparing some Java lessons for CoderDojo.

Two things have always really impressed me about this Java app:

1. It is SUCH a good reproduction of the original game
2. The code is so nicely done

 Mike Hall has a website called brainjar.com.

As well as writing Asteroids, he also did some great work on Dynamic HTML back in the day, including:

• A really good drop-down menu system
• A really good DHTML scroller

I wonder what Mike is doing these days. The footer of his website says "(c) 1999-2014 by Mike Hall" but to be honest I don't think it has changed much since the early 2000's. And things have moved on quite a bit since then!

Anyway, I would recommend playing the game and reading the Java source code to anyone.

Incident at Twenty-Mile

I was in the St Vincent de Paul charity shop in Malahide village at the weekend, dropping off some old clothes and shoes.

I took a peek at the second-hand books (my son Andrew is looking for the Lord of the Rings books) and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a hardback edition of "Incident at Twenty-Mile" by my favourite author, Trevanian!

Now obviously I already had the book at home (I have all of his books) but as I only had the paperback edition I decided that I had to buy it!

So the photo below shows my new acquisition beside my old one.

As I think back on it, I suspect that my first exposure to Trevanian was buying a second-hand copy of "Shibumi" in a shop in Templebar, many, many moons ago.

Anyway, this is a nice excuse for me to re-read the book (if I can take a break from my Asimov books!).